There isn’t any hard evidence that proves that smartphones are bad for our neurological functions, however. Rather, researchers argue that our need to be constantly checking our BlackBerry screens or updating Facebook during dinner is turning us into shallow thinkers and emotionless zombies.

Evgeny Morozov, a social scientist and author of the forthcoming To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism, argues that what’s most worrisome about “smart” technology is that while it starts off with the intention of helping us improve our lives, it can end up taking over. In a recent essay for The Wall Street Journal, he highlighted the example of a “smart” kitchen where “tiny countertop robots inform us that, say, arugula doesn’t go with boiled carrots.” Such an invention, he argues, would basically kill culinary creativity.

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